Monday, June 3, 2013

Tuscan Bean Salad

Have you ever eaten lunch at Costco? I don't mean that you've ordered a
hot dog at their concession stand. What I mean is that, while you were
pushing your shopping cart around, you stopped every few feet at the
sample tables and helped yourself to whatever they were offering until
you were full. Brian and I are definitely Costco diners although we
rarely buy the product being sampled. We do spend quite a lot of money
there, even if it's on non-sampled products, so I rather think they'd
forgive us. And it's not that we don't think what we sampled tasted
good. It usually does. But when we look at the nutrition panel of
whatever it is, we ask each other how it's even possible to get that
much fat and calories into that size container! But our dietary
reluctance to buy doesn't mean we aren't inspired to cook.

When we were at Costco to stock up for the long Memorial Day weekend, we
were treated to a delicious Tuscan bean salad served up on a tortilla
chip. Delicious! And completely inspiring. I looked at the
ingredients and realized I could make a healthy version of this pretty
easily. So maybe we didn't buy a container of that salad, but we did
buy all the ingredients to make it. Naturally I replaced the chemical
name ingredients with actual food and seasonings and I probably cut the
oil they used in half. But what was left was a serviceable copy of the
salad and it was both good and good for you. Enjoy!

Place the barley in a pot and add 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil,
cover, reduce heat to low and cook for approximately 30 minutes or until
the water has been absorbed and the grains are tender. Remove from the
heat and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Add the
chick peas, white beans, bell pepper, fresh tomato, sun dried tomatoes,
red onion and basil. Add the cooled barley, toss and season to taste. Makes approximately 8 servings.

Yes, I used to graze at Costco until they changed the one near me to a business center and changed the store completely. I let my membership expire so I haven't been in a long time.Anyway, glad you got inspiration for this salad. I'm a big fan of barley and white beans.

I have totally eaten dinner at Sam's which is like Costco - I've even taken Holli there when she was young and fed HER dinner there! :) The bean salad looks wonderful and will be a great addition to our salad month coming in about 6 weeks!

This looks delicious Anita and I do the same thing. Well, my daughter grazes through the isles then tells me which ones she likes best and I do the same thing you do...look at the ingredients and decide that it would be healthier if I made it at home instead. I've even gone so far as to take a picture of the ingredients on a product so I remember when I get home. And adding fresh ingredients always tastes better anyway. Nice recipe!

A very odd Tuscan bean salad.! A genuine and much nicer one consists of cooked haricot beans dressed in olive oil when warm, a finely sliced red onion, good quality tuna crumbled over it. Garnish with torn fresh basil. Simple, health and delicious.

I'm surprised that you find this odd because, if you do a Google search for Tuscan Bean Salad, you'll find that almost all are based around white beans, not French green beans. Nevertheless, the salad you describe sounds quite good as well.